Ryan Stapp﻿ says that surviving a near accident and getting a DWI "was a God moment. You can't explain it, but everything happens for a reason. I was going down a nasty drain but now I have got dreams and ambitions." ﻿Harris County is reforming its probation system for convicted drunk drivers.﻿ less

Ryan Stapp﻿ says that surviving a near accident and getting a DWI "was a God moment. You can't explain it, but everything happens for a reason. I was going down a nasty drain but now I have got dreams and ... more

Photo: Johnny Hanson

Harris County going all out to reduce drunken driving deaths

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Convicted drunken drivers soon could face tougher scrutiny through a series of reforms designed to reduce the rate of drunken driving fatalities in Harris County, among the highest in the nation.

Repeat offenders, and those arrested for egregious blood-alcohol levels while behind the wheel, will be targeted under the Harris County Community Supervision Department's initiative, which includes having probation officers trained on the psychology behind drunken driving assigned to those considered to be at high risk of repeat offenses while on probation.

"With higher-risk DWIs, we know that when these individuals are getting in a car, they are driving a loaded weapon," probations department Director Teresa May said. "If they continue to drink at that level, their risk of killing someone is very, very high."

In 2013, about 13,000 people - half of all Harris County probationers - were on supervision for a misdemeanor driving-while-intoxicated conviction. Thousands more crowd county jails.

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Harris County has the highest rate of alcohol-related traffic fatalities among large counties in Texas and, some years, the nation. In 2012, 2,809 alcohol-related crashes caused 175 deaths and 942 serious injuries in Harris County, according to the Texas Department of Transportation's most recent statistics.

A 2009 report found that 60 percent of traffic deaths in Harris County were alcohol related - twice the national average. It sparked county-wide reduction efforts that May, who was hired last year, has now joined.

She has pushed for numerous changes at the probation department, including the gradual implementation later this month of a new risk assessment for all convicted defendants that aims to determine how likely a person is to re-offend while on probation and, for the first time, why.

Currently, about 6 percent of DWI offenders have their probation revoked for any reason, May said.

Of the 400 probation officers put through a "Hard Core Drunk Driver" course, 60 were selected to receive ongoing training and work with DWI probationers at the highest risk of re-offending. Those officers will have a limited number of cases assigned to them so that they have more time to work with each offender and judge.

'Minimizing confusion'

Officers studied DWI-specific risk factors, as well as the psychological underpinnings that can lead people to drive when drunk, May said. Manufacturers of alcohol monitoring devices taught them the ways people try to fool the technology and offered tips for reading the testing reports, sometimes five times a day from a single client.

In addition, judges have agreed to sentence based on a uniform set of probation terms.

"The guidelines will minimize confusion in the field for probation officers," said criminal court Judge Mike Fields. "As it stands now, if there are 15 courts, there may be 15 different sets of rules officers have to keep up with."

Novel idea for Texas

The changes pushed by May are innovative for Harris County, but the ideas are not new, said Carey Welebob, who oversees probation departments statewide as director of the Community Justice Assistance Division at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

"Harris County had really been more stagnant, hadn't been making advances," Welebob said. "With the new leadership, they've definitely caught up."

She also noted that specialized case loads, particularly for crimes associated with substance abuse, have been used for decades and, when implemented correctly, can reduce revocations and recidivism.

Focusing on drunk driving, however, is fairly novel for Texas, particularly at such a large scale, Welebob said. With Harris County's population, she said she hopes the program can provide statistically sound evidence of what works, possibly to share with legislators who have a strong appetite to fund programs that address drunken driving.

Limited case loads

While it is too early to say what impact the changes will have, some convicted offenders already are being monitored by newly trained probation officers.

Harris County already has a Sober Court, dockets targeting the same risk characteristics of drunken drivers and staffed by officers with limited case loads and DWI expertise. All have completed the new training and started to apply the skills to existing clients.

Nina Juarez, who became a probation officer in 2009, finished the "Hard Core" course last year and was assigned to one of Sober Court's lighter case loads.

"I can focus on every one of my clients and give them more effective monitoring because I'm not working with 100-plus people," she said. "The type of rapport we build with clients is completely different now."

Probationer Ryan Stapp, 22, agreed, noting Juarez shares his love for music. In a separate conversation, Juarez bragged about an electronic dance party Stapp had organized for other sober young adults.

Stapp, who said he has been sober for a year, admitted he was much less enthusiastic about probation after he was convicted two years ago.

Surprise urine tests

He thought he could drink without being caught, so long as he did not do it near Monday, when his weekly urine tests were scheduled. On other days, he said, he would drink and attempt to detox between mandatory breath tests.

Juarez said specialty officers know to suspect binge drinking when clients spread out their test times as much as possible or have frequent excuses for being late. With the extra training and time for each client, they can more quickly spot the possibility and coordinate with judges to order surprise urine tests.

Stapp was called for a Wednesday morning urine test. He failed and had to go before Harris County Criminal Judge Diane Bull, who ordered him to spend that weekend in jail.

He remembered thinking probation was worse.

"I asked what I'd be looking at if I decided to go to jail," Stapp said. "They told me, 'No.' "